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***CONTEST CLOSED***
“I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty.” – Edgar Allen Poe.
Ten years ago, The Arizona Curriculum Theater opened PoeFest with just six audience members. By the third night they were packed. Of course, they knew they had something special. PoeFest has been a labor of love for a decade now. The month-long schedule of events kicks off on October 5th at the historic Hotel San Carlos. The event runs until Halloween night at the Rosson House Museum. One of the best elements happens on the main stage every Friday and Saturday at 8:00 PM. In the aptly-named Ghost Lounge, professional actors bring the stories of Edgar Allan Poe to life as characters from his fictional Maison de Santé asylum.

PoeFest includes mainstage productions of Poe’s short stories every weekend during the month of October. Poe’s stories are read nightly. That means each night is a completely different show. Then, on Oct. 20th & 27th at 10PM, they present PoeFest Seance. This is an exploration of the extrasensory and an attempt to contact the lost soul of Edgar Allan Poe himself. Lastly, the PoeFest festival comes to a close with the grand finale on Halloween Night. The finale features performances of ‘The Raven’ every twenty minutes at the historic Rosson House Museum.
If you have been wanting to check this out, NOW is the time! We are lucky to have TWO tickets for the October 13th performance at the Hotel San Carlos to giveaway and they could be YOURS!
To enter this PoeFest Freebie Friday giveaway, use our comment section to answer the following question:
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE POE STORY AND WHY?
We will allow 72 hours for entries so no excuse for letting this chance pass you by. We will select a winner with random.org on Monday. The PoeFest winner will receive notification via e-mail sometime on the following day. Comments are moderated and may take some time to appear. Please do not resubmit your comments — one will be plenty.
Good luck, everyone!! In the meantime, check out all of the awesome upcoming events and happenings at your favorite Bookmans location.

My favorite Edgar Allan Poe story is “The Tell Tale Heart”. A beloved teacher of mine read it for us before Halloween when I was in 6th grade. Poe was an amazing story teller and he sparked a love of reading in me. I read this story to my boys each year before Halloween, it’s become a tradition.

The Fall of the House of Usher is my favorite Poe stories. I love reading this aloud to my students to really demonstrate Poe’s use of descriptive language and how the crumbling house represents the mental and physical deterioration of its owner. They are very shocked by the live burial! Great gothic tale.

We went to the poe fest enactment last year and was blown away . It was so eerie and realistic . Our actor never missed a beat and it gave us chills . We are doing it again this year for sure . It was something we did as a family with our town boys and made a lasting memory . Thank you

My favorite Poe story is the tell tale heart. It my favorite story because Its the first one I read when I rented his book of tales in elementary and then I became hooked. I loved the depiction of the character’s powerful conscious and the overall intensity of it.

The Raven and Lenore / A Pæan are among my favorite works of his. I was lucky to have and am grateful for having had an AP English teacher that loved Poe and Shakespeare. She’s no longer with us but the impression she made lives on in me, her family and extended family – the lives of other students she touched.